Vietnam Travel Journal - Dr. Kim Mu Yan

After departing on Nov 12^th and arriving in the morning of the 17^th, I finally have the chance to post my travel journal after taking care of all my overdue work.

This time we went to the southern part of Ho Chi Min city (used to call Saigon) in Vietnam and from there it took us another one and half hours to reach our destination, Tien Giang Province in Mekong Delta region. This voluntary activity was organized by Korean Sharing Love Association.

The most serious issue experienced by developing countries is securing clean and potable water and together with the medical volunteers, we helped by providing fresh drinking water. Vietnam is not a country without water, however, it is a country without sufficient clean portable water and there are many teeth and kidney stone disease due to the high level of calcium in the water.

No matter how much we wanted to help these people, we had to put in a lot of considerations to avoid embarrassing the receivers or making them feel bad about receiving the help. Even if we had taken care of everything, if we were not careful of the way we presented the things to the people like looking at them with condescending eyes or throwing the presents to them, we would spoil every effort we had put in. This was what happened to Korean people when we were receiving aid from America in the past.

For 11 years, Vietnam was divided into Communist and Democratic parties and experienced constant war during that period. At present, it remains as a communist country. This was a country that used to have lots of natural resources and if only Democratic Party had won, it might be a country as prosperous as Singapore. However, the history was not like that…… 

Anyway, at present, it has a population of 87 million people and even though it has a group of young high-potential generation leading this young country with numerous foreign investing companies, the annual income of an individual is only about one thousand US dollars showing the wide gap between the rich and the poor. The unbelievable thing is that the living standard in Mekong Delta is still the same as it was 100 years ago.  

Back to the topic again, our medical volunteers was divided into two teams and in the case of ophthalmology team, we had actually packed about eight boxes of drugs and equipments for the ophthalmological team to bring along to Vietnam, but we had to reduce the number to three due to the various restrictions.  Upon unloading the boxes in the small hospital at the outskirts of Ho Chi Min City, there were already a lot of patients waiting for treatment. Before coming to Vietnam, the schedule seemed relaxed with one and half hour of lunchtime, however, with the huge number of patients, we all skipped lunch and treated all patients till the sunset and this continued to the second day, without lunch and finished after sunset.     

The most disappointing thing was not able to provide cataract surgeries due to facilities’ issue so we tried to treat the patients with the drugs we brought along and select the patients who needed surgeries. In April 2011, we planned to have a follow-up with the selected patients and have their surgeries done. Thankfully, we had a team of young devoted Vietnamese people helping us and we managed to acquire a positive Korea-Vietnam exchange together with the local doctors bringing hope to everyone for our trip in 2011.

Together with the aid of Mirae Assets and Vietnam-Korea Culture Center, we managed to start building houses successfully for the locals. During the scholarship presentation ceremony in Tien Giang University, apart from the tropical climate and a temperature of 36 degrees Celsius, we had the wonderful chance to watch an outdoor local folk performance.  

When I was in elementary school, I was constantly being told how impressive the Reunification Palace was in Vietnam and I could finally understand why the palace was labeled as magnificent upon seeing the palace with my own eyes. Korea used to be like Vietnam, divided into Communist and Democratic Parties due to the difference in ideology and with a corrupted government that squandered money without any care for the people. If such situation persisted, I knew that the citizens would be the ones who carried the burden, as it was what happened in Korea many years ago. Blue House is decorated luxuriously like Reunification Palace with a bomb shelter in the basement to use during war but I hoped that there are no personal cinema and billiard room in the Blue House like what I saw in the Reunification Palace.

Even though the past is over but the memories of numerous young and ambitious Korean men, who sacrificed their lives during Vietnam War (19 years & 180 days) still remained in many hearts. At that time, US Army supplied the biggest number of forces with Korean Army leading behind. Korea has many connections with Vietnam since then and even with the memory of this painful history, both countries could actually make peace and look after each other in many ways.   

Countries are always helping each other in some ways but North and South Koreas, the same ethnic group, are still struggling to reach peace. North Korea leader, Kim Jong-Il, had great parents who sent him overseas to receive high education but even with his knowledge, he could not go with the flow with other countries and cooperate with others. Is it wrong to think that he had received the wrong education and caused North Koreans to suffer under his leadership? Although both of us are from the Kim’s family and we could have been cousins, it is regretful to say that he had obstructed the development of North Korea with his thoughtless acts.

지난 11월 12일에 출발해서 17일 새벽에 도착했는데 밀린 일들을 처리하느라 이제서야 다녀온 이야기를 올리게 되었습니다.

이번에 저희가 다녀온 곳은 베트남 남쪽의 호치민 시(과거의 사이공입니다) 와 거기서 다시 남쪽으로 한시간 반정도 더 가는 메콩 삼각주 지역인 띠엔쟝 성 미토 시 지역입니다. 제가 몸담고 있는 봉사 단체가 있는데 <우물사랑> 이라는 곳입니다.

개발도상국에서 가장 심각하게 겪고 있는 문제가 깨끗하고 안전하게 마실 물을 확보하는 것이라서 안전한 식수원을 공급하는 것을 도와드리는 일을 하는데 더불어 의료봉사도 하고 있습니다. 베트남은 물부족 국가는 아니지만 깨끗한 물이 충분하지는 않습니다. 석회질 물이어서 결석과 치과 질환도 많다고 하고요. 그러나 이번에는 현지 정부의 요청에 따라 우물이 아닌 집을 지어드리기로 하고 준비를 했습니다.

남을 돕는다는게 아무리 선한 취지로 시작되었다 하더라도 받아들이는 측의 체면이 상하면 난처한 일이 생기기 때문에 준비 과정에서부터 세심하게 배려해야할 것이 많습니다. 뭔가를 가지고 가서 예다 나눠가져라 하고 주고나면 잘 해주고도 욕먹는 일이 생기기 쉽기 때문이고 우리가 과거에 미국으로부터 원조받으면서 겪었던 일이기도 합니다.

북위 17도선을 경계로 북쪽의 공산지역과 남쪽의 자유진영으로 나뉘어 있는 베트남이 11녀에 걸친 전쟁을 거쳐 공산화가 되었던 것은 많이 알고 계실 것입니다. 그 전까지 동아시에서 아주 잘 살던 나라이고 자원이 많은만큼 많은 사람들이 당시에 남측 주도로 통일이 되었더라면 지금 싱가폴 만큼 잘 사는 나라가 되었을 거라고 생각하고 있습니다만 역사란 그렇지 않은 것이어서...

아무튼 지금은 87백만의 인구를 가진 그것도 젊은 노동력을 많이 가진 잠재력이 높은 국가로 외국인 자본 투자에도 적극적이고 잘 살아보려고 노력하는 그런 청년국가가 되어 있습니다. 그러나 아직까지는 1인당 국민소득이 1천불을 조금 넘는 수준이고 게다가 도시와 농촌 간에 소득격차가 많아서 메콩강 삼각주 지역에서는 100년전 생활과 비교해 그닥 나아보이지 않는 (우리 시각으로 그렇겠지요. 그분들 시각에서는 편안한 삶일 겁니다) 환경에 노출되어 있습니다.

의료봉사는 두 팀으로 나눠져 진행되었는데 안과의 경우 아무래도 장비가 뒷받침되어야 하기 때문입니다. 미리 준비했던 짐이 안과 짐만 8상자였다가 현지 정부에서의 각종 규제탓에 3상자만 가지고 갔는데 호치민 시 외곽의 조그만 병원에 짐을 풀러 도착해보니 정말 많은 분들이 기다리고 있었습니다. 처음 준비과정에서의 스케쥴은 느긋하게 점심식사로 쌀국수도 한시간 반정도 먹고 그런 게 들어있었는데 결과적으로는 점심은 굶고 하루해가 다 지도록 쉬지 않고 일을 하고 다음날 점심이 되어서야 진료가 마무리 되었습니다.

아쉽게도 수술 허가를 받지 못해서 이번에는 대상 환자를 선정하는 작업까지만 진행하고 약으로 해결 가능한 질환들을 봐드리고 왔습니다만 내년 4월에 후속 조치로 이번에 선정한 환자분들을 수술해 드리러 다시 가기로 하였습니다. 다행히 현지에서 도와주신 분들이 정말 헌신적이셨고 베트남의 젊은 층들의 도움도 컸으며 현지 병원의 원장님도 한국과의 교류에 적극적이셔서 여러모로 희망을 많이 보고 돌아왔습니다.

의료봉사 외에 집짓기 사업은 성공리에 마무리되었으며 미래에셋 베트남 법인과 베트남 한국 문화원의 도움이 컸습니다. 띠엔쟝 대학교에서의 장학금 수여 행사 때 현지에서 민속 공연을 준비하는 바람에 예정에 없이 야외에서 두 시간 을 있게 되었는데 36도가 넘는 열대기후였던 탓에 너무 더웠던 것 빼고는 다 좋았던 것 같습니다.

개인적으로는 초등학교 때 귀에 못이 박히도록 듣던 월남의 고디엔디엠 대통령의 궁전으로 사용되던 통일궁을 가본 것이 가장 인상적이었습니다. 남북간에 공산진영과 자유 진영간의 이념 대립을 함께 겪었던 우리와 월남으로서는 지도층의 부패와 낭비가 얼마나 심각한 위협을 가져오는 지 직접 눈으로 보고 느낀 바가 있었습니다. 아마도 우리 나라 청와대도 외빈접대 시설 등은 부끄럽지 않은 수준으로 갖추어놓았을 것이고 지하에 벙커도 있겠습니다만 단독 영화관이나 당구장 같은 불요불급한 시설들은 없으리라고 믿습니다.

영원한 적은 없다지만 우리가 역사상 가장 많은 수의 군대를 보내고 가장 많은 우리 젊은이들이 외국에서 목숨을 바친 전쟁에 베트남 전쟁이었습니다. 미군 다음으로 많은 주둔군이었고 양 측간에 수많은 사연이 남아있을 것입니다. 그런 아픈 역사가 다 지나가고 지금은 서로 화해하고 돌보고 협력하는 시기인 것 같습니다.

머나먼 이국에서도 서로 협력이 가능한데 같은 민족인 북한과는 맨날 이지경인지 참으로 답답합니다. 김정은이라는 어린 친구도 부모 잘 만나서 어려서부터 좋은 나라에서 선진 교육을 받고 돌아왔는데도 세계의 흐름을 보지 못하고 철부지 어린애같이 행동을 하고 있으니 윗마을 김씨집안도 자식 교육 잘못 시켜서 집안도 망하고 인민도 고생하는 그런 때가 아닌가 우려가 됩니다. 제사 때마다 와서 깽판을 쳐도 사촌은 사촌인데 말입니다. 안타깝습니다.

Xmas Greetings!

iLASIK

Year-End Dinner

December and January are probably the busiest period for most people as lots of people are preparing presents for Christmas or settling the company’s year-end finance accounts or planning where to go for the holidays. When I was in Japan, December was the time to have year-end dinners to celebrate the ending of one year and to put the past away and January was the month to have New Year parties and to celebrate the New Year. Korea is pretty similar too with many people having year-end dinners with friends and company workers to celebrate the ending of one year and also to patch up any bad relationship between people so that they could look forward to a new start in the next year.

Of course, we also had our year-end dinner last Wednesday to celebrate the achievements of our clinic for 2010. The menu was Korean beef as Korean beef is actually the most expensive beef in Korea and on such occasion, it is important to provide the best for the employees to show thanks and gratitude for their hard work in 2010. During dinner, presents were also presented to many co-workers for their hard work including The Early Bird Prize for 2 workers who arrive to work early every morning, The Best Idea Prize for 3 workers who contributed successful ideas to provide better service for our patients, The best Worker in December and another team leader was elected for our surgery room. Congratulations to all of you and keep up your good work!

One of our directors, Dr. Lee, also made a speech that in the New Year we would all stay healthy and work hard to ensure the clinic would continue to prosper under our hard work. As for Dr. Kim, he moved around the tables, making sure that he gave a toast to all of us and presented a short speech hoping that we would continue to cooperate and work as a team in the clinic, mentioning that without team spirit, the clinic would not be able to prosper and flourish. He also emphasized the importance of team spirit so that our personal knowledge would improve and help each other as a team, not just for ourselves. Finally he thanked everyone for the hard work and hope that we would all have a good year ahead.

Personally I would also like to thank Dr. Kim and all workers for their patience since I am not Korean, they need to spend more time to explain things to me and try to understand my broken Korean^^. Thank you all very much!! 

My Vietnam trip - By Grace Seo

8 o’clock in the morning… I wondered what I could do for the people here.

I was finally standing in front of NgỌk Linh Hospital in Vietnam~

After asking around the hospitals in Vietnam, we finally decided to liaise with NgỌk Linh Hospital as it was big, equipped with facilities similar to Korea and it looked like a hospital in the rural area.  

The hospital was packed with people …..not just some…. but many people ….

At 8 in the morning, we went earlier to the hospital to prepare so that we were ready to cope with the large number of patients and in fact, we thought that there would be no patients at this time. However it was not what we thought. The moment we reached there, we saw young children staring at us, the foreigners, with wide eyes and they seemed amazed with our presence. (I guess I was the same when I saw foreigners in Korea.) …. Wanting to say ‘Hi’ but shy…. I could hear people talking noisily in the background, curious about our presence.  

Treatment started…There were many patients needing vision examination and eye examination. Occasionally there were patients needing eye drops to dilate their pupils and many patients needed help walking due to poor visual acuity. It was just like what we did during voluntary activities in Korea. 

At that moment, a group of children wearing same clothing appeared… I realized it immediately as they were all friends from the same orphanage. The shocking truth for this group of children was that they were born without eyes… not just one but all of them….  Later while we were at the countryside, Dr Kim told us that the poor water quality could be one of the reasons leading to children without eyes as it was as black as waste water and there were a limited number of days where Vietnamese people could only get clean water. Not only that, due to insufficient crime prevention measures in Vietnam, there were many unplanned pregnancies and these pregnant women tried to abort the fetuses by taking abortion drugs that didn’t get rid of the fetuses and the eyes of these babies were not developed due to these drugs. This group of children was the outcome….. 

However this group of people was children themselves. Like us in Korea, they joked with each other and laughed together, these young children were no different from us… Indeed they should be the same as us. However when I saw these children, they all seemed to carry a serious expression like they were criminals with their heads down. I could feel my eyes streaming with tears as even though they were young, they had to be treated like disabled people and listen to people talking about them being their backs constantly. They were blind but not deaf. I could only provide them my warm hand during the examination and greet them warmly whenever I could. Maybe I felt that it was the best thing I could do for them.

We connected with each other through our hearts...

Another unforgettable friend entered the room ….

This friend still remained in my memory even though she was of no difference with the other friends. Looking at her reminded me of the horror movie, ‘The Ring’ where the main character climbed out of the TV and her eyes were opaque. Our friend was like the main character with opaque eyes. At this young age, which was the best time to see the beautiful world, she could not due to the white membrane covering her cornea. Actually, it was like the elderly people who had developed cataracts in Korea.

As expected, she could not see anything except slight light rays…. Yet this child didn’t forget to put a pure bright smile on her face throughout the whole treatment process and thanked us for what we did. Numerous thoughts flowed by my head…..

All this while, I was grateful for what I had, so why did I always complain about what’s insufficient? I was born with two eyes and through these eyes I was able to see many beautiful places, through these eyes I was able to see thousands of facial expressions and through these eyes I was able to share the tears and laughter with the people around me. Maybe I had forgotten about this fact for a moment... I had never felt that I needed to feel grateful for what I had till now… The connection with these friends actually awoke my inner heart.

In the morning when I was standing in front of the hospital, I worried about what I could do for these people. It was really unnecessary as through these friends, I was able to experience something I couldn’t feel in Korea. The heart-to-heart communication with people…

Kimchi~Kimchi~Kimchi~

Going to a foreign country means exploring the local traditions, trying to adapt to the environment and answering similar questions. Every country has its special touch and being able to enjoy or try to explore the local dishes/culture show respect to the locals and the locals will usually be extremely happy of our presence. In Korea, there are many traditional things that a foreigner could learn including taking ceramic classes, doing craftwork, making kimchi and even wearing traditional Korean dress, Hanbok.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to make Kimchi at Our Lady of Mercy Rehabilitation Center (성모자애 복지관)in Seoul. Basically there are about 180 types of Kimchi (fermented vegetables – check out the Kimchi Museum in COEX) and they vary from non-spicy to very spicy Kimchi with various types of vegetables. Koreans always make kimchi during this period and depending on the size of the family or organization, they will make enough to last for the whole winter or for the whole year. Making kimchi is not an easy job as the recipe varies according to the family recipe and the taste will never be the same. As for the younger generation, their mothers will usually make kimchi and send to them if they are not staying at home. Kimchi is their staple dish and Koreans usually eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner along with rice.  

When we reached the center, there were 2 teams at work, one was washing the cabbages and the other was drying the cabbages and mixing it with the kimchi paste. Kimchi process usually starts with sprinkling sea salt on cabbages to remove its water content for about 2 hours and then washing the salt off the cabbages. And then, the second part will be making the paste by slicing green onions, garlic, onions, ginger and radish, blending hot pepper flakes, salted shrimp, fish sauce and rice water together and then, mixing the paste and vegetables together.

Since the paste was already made when we arrived, we were assigned outside to squeeze the water out of cabbage in the morning and we had the chance to spread the kimchi paste on the cabbage after lunch. Working side by side with the older ladies meant getting the chance to learn how to make real kimchi. Making Kimchi was just not about getting the right ingredients and portion, it was also about applying the right amount of paste on all part of cabbage. Started from the outer leaf of the cabbage, slowly rubbed the kimchi paste inwards making sure all leaves were covered with certain amount of the paste. Not too little but not too much, just enough as the amount of paste would also affect the taste.

The older ladies worked really fast and that is Korean culture. While some of us were doing the spreading, others were making sure that we had enough paste, cabbages and plastic bags to contain the Kimchi. It was like in the wet market. Thank goodness the kitchen was big enough to contain us and we didn’t have to do it outdoor. Finally we finished after two hours, and then we started to clean up. By 2:30 pm, we were sitting down and eating some snacks. ^^ It was fun and for foreigners who have been in Korea for awhile but yet, haven’t tried making kimchi, I would recommend checking online for the opportunities to make kimchi.  Have fun and immerse yourself in Korea~           

Vision Recovery~~

My vision recovery period has not been easy as it takes about 1 month to recovery and during this period, I experience long-sightedness and have difficulty working on the computer for a long period as the images seem blurred and hazy and I get occasional headaches from looking at the screen for a long period. Especially at night, due to astigmatism, I get lots of glares and halos from cars and street lights. 

Well, I have been very patient and I constantly use my prescribed eye drops so apart from dryness, Dr. Kim mentioned that my recovery progress was about 70% which was higher than expectations. Before surgery, my both eyes had myopia of about -3.5 and astigmatism of about -0.75 on my left eye and about -0.5 on my right.  Today, 2 weeks after my surgery, my right eye has myopia of -0.25 with astigmatism of -0.5 and my left eye has hyperopia of +0.25 with astigmatism of -1.25.  The astigmatism will slowly go away and I am really excited as I could feel that my vision is recovering too~ 

Two more weeks to go before my vision stabilized and I am really looking forward to that moment~^^

My LASEK Experience

Watching patients going through LASEK or LASIK is one thing but having me lying on the operation bed is another thing.  Yes ~ Yes~ I had my eyes corrected using LASEK method on Nov 11th. The decision was made in the morning and together with my 2 other colleagues, we had our vision examined, Orb Scan and Wasca done by 3pm. At around 5pm, Dr. Kim examined all our eyes and we were sent to the operation room to get ready for our surgeries. I was the first one and of course I was a little nervous but with all my good colleagues supporting us, I felt assured.

After lying on the bed, they aligned my eyes with MEL-80 machine, my eyes were rinsed with saline and local anesthesia drops were provided. By then I felt my throat drying and I felt like coughing.  However, my colleague kept telling me not to move my head too much as alignment was done.  After Dr. Kim entered the operation room, the surgery was ready to start. Dr. Kim started off assuring me that as local anesthesia was put in my eyes, there wouldn’t be any pain. Afterward he used the speculum to keep my right eye open and more eye drops were provided. Subsequently, Amoils Brush was used to scrape off my top corneal layer and the procedure took only a few seconds with my right eye feeling a bit itchy due to the brushing. After scraping off my top corneal layer, my right eye was ready to receive Wavefront laser treatment. My right eye fixed at the green light and the laser started emitting a loud sound and a little burning smell. That was normal and it didn’t take more than 1 minute. After the laser finished, my cornea turned opaque and I could only see white light. Dr. Kim then used cold saline water and mitomycin to prevent the opacity, rinsed my eye with lots of saline and finally covered my eye with a contact lens to prevent inflammation. Whew~ I survived part of the surgery and I started to relax as there was really no pain involved and I hardly felt anything. 

With my right eye finished, Dr. Kim prepared my left eye for the laser treatment. The procedure was the same as the right side and the whole surgery finished within 10 minutes. For LASEK, the surgery was not difficult but the recovery period was not easy. After the surgery, I stayed at home for 3 days with constant tearing and sleeping since I could hardly open my eyes on the first two days especially on the 2^nd day with a little pain on the 1^st night.  I slept so much (as I couldn’t keep my eyes open for a long period) that I felt I lost track of time. However by the 3^rd day, I felt more at ease as I was able to watch some TV and keep my eyes open for a longer period with lesser tearing. To prevent any inflammation, I used my prescribed eye drops regularly and I actually finished the eye drops within 3 days. I ended up sleeping at 3 a.m that night due to the amount of sleeping I did for the last 3 days. 

I went back to work on the 4^th day and up till now, about a week later, I couldn’t read things well and everything seems blurred at times.  Well it will take about a month or two depending on the health of your cornea and regular use of eye drops so don’t get depressed because of it.  Just think about the future when I will not have to wear glasses or contact lenses again, I am letting the nature takes its flow and looking forward to the moment when I can see everything clearly again, and this time without glasses.      

Thoughts on my Vietnam trip by Miss Lim

Our eye center provides voluntary outpatient eye examinations regularly throughout the year and from Nov 12^th~16^th a charity trip to Vietnam was organized by Korea Love Sharing Association, together with Dr. Kim to do outpatient check-up and cataract surgeries. Preparation started two months ago as equipment for cataract surgery needed to be sterilized and sealed properly and drugs and medicine needed to be ordered and packed. However, the day before the departure date, the decision was changed to just providing outpatient treatment for the people as the hospital environment in Vietnam was not suitable for doing cataract surgery. So, we had to repack everything again and with a smaller luggage, we departed for Vietnam on Nov 12^that 7:10am.

~I am the one on the left~

My first impression of Ho Chi Min City was very hot yet with very beautiful clear sky~ On the way to the hotel, the distinguishing feature was that there were a lot of motorbikes and in fact, there were more motorbikes than cars on the street.  Very scary~~ At first glance, I felt that Vietnamese people lived a hard life due to the simple way they dressed. Since this was my first time in this activity, I hoped that even with my limited ability, I could help these people to improve their life in some way.  

On the next day after a simple breakfast, we went to a local hospital in Ho Chi Min City and there were already a lot of people waiting to receive the examination.  Actually the facilities were not as bad as what we imagined but looking at the number of patients, we quickly set up our equipment and started the outpatient treatment. Problems arise immediately after we started the treatment process as we encountered problems communicating with the patients. Thankfully, with the help of the local staff, the patient’s condition was explained to Dr. Kim in English and then, the staff explained Dr. Kim’s comments back to the patients in Vietnamese. The treatment period was longer than expected because of language barrier and the condition of patients’ eyes was not as good as what we expected either.

 Even though there were many patients with serious cataract conditions, blind patients and patients who needed glasses to match their present eyesight, they could not have the surgeries immediately or buy new glasses due to their present living conditions. Throughout the whole process especially after treating the patients who were born without eyeballs, I felt that my present living condition in Korea was considered well-off as compared to these people. I am really fortunate.

The local people seemed happy and always carried a cheerful smile on their face even with the poor living condition and without glasses to match their existing eyesight. We could only help by giving eye drops to improve their eye condition and even with this little action, the people were very grateful and lavished us with lots of thanks.

While treating the patients, Dr. Kim and we promised ourselves to make sure that we will prepare the necessary equipment for cataract surgery and bring it along for our next trip to Vietnam so that we could present these people a chance to see the world clearly and brightly. As the queue continued, we decided to postpone the groundbreaking ceremony for building new houses and continued the treatment process to the following day.       

Looking at the sky of Ho Chi Min City at night, I realized that there was no star in the sky. Maybe it was caused by air pollution from the numerous motorbikes and the star ray was lost on the way or it was because the local people didn’t have healthy eyes to see the stars... I was not sure but my heart hurt. For two days, I kept thinking about how fortunate I was during the treatment process and I also learnt about how little touch means so much to some people and no matter how hard the situation was, I had to stay positive.

Since high school, I have started volunteering and I would like to spend more time volunteering in either kindergartens or elderly homes, but I would always have excuses not to do it.  Even the thought of volunteering was not easy. Previously I had checked out the voluntary opportunities on the internet, it was either the application deadline was over or only volunteers with specified abilities like musicians or artists were needed. However, this trip makes me realized that there are actually many places needing nurse volunteers, people like me and I should be proud of my occupation.  I would really like to thank GS Eye Center for giving me this opportunity and I hope that there will be another chance to go to Vietnam next year.    

국내에서도 자주 의료봉사를 해왔던 우리병원... 이번엔 해외의료봉사다!!

처음엔 간단한 외래진료와 백내장수술을 주로 하기위해서 많은 준비를 했었지만..

출국을 하기 하루전날 백내장수술을 할 수 없게 되었다는 통보를 받고 준비했던 짐들을 모두풀고 다시 간단한 외래진료만을 위한 짐을 싸야했다.

수술을 하지 않지만.. 처음으로 참여하는 해외의료봉사에 기대도 부풀었지만, 그곳의 상황을 짐작할 수 없었기 때문에 걱정이 앞섰다.. 이런저런 생각으로 밤을 지세고 11월 22일 7시 10분 호치민행 비행기에 올랐다.

처음으로 방문한 호치민의 날씨는 무척이나 더웠고, 맑게 게인 하늘은 너무나도 예뻤다.

차를 타고 이동을 하면서 특징적인 광경은 오토바이를 타고 이동하는 호치민시의 사람들이었다.

오토바이 정말 많다.... 차보다 오토바이가 더 많다... 무서웠다..@..@

그리고 사람들의 행색은 그리 깔끔해 보이지 않았다... 넉넉하지않은 생활이 사람들의 모습에서 한눈에 짐작이 되었다. 앞으로 일정이 걱정이 되었지만, 이사람들에게 조금이나마 도움이 될 수 있을거란 생각에 벌써부터 뿌듯했다.

다음날 숙소에서의 간단한 아침식사를 마치고 진료를 위해 호치민시내의 한 병원으로 이동했다.

생각했던것보다 병원의 시설을 깔끔했고 나쁘지 않았다.

우리가 병원에 도착했을땐 이미 많은 사람들이 진료를 받기위해 우리를 기다리고 있었다.

우리는 서둘러 진료를 시작했는데, 진료를 하는데는 많은 에로사항이 있었다. 가장 큰 것은 의사소통이었다.

그래서 우리와 함께해준 미래에셋 현지직원들의 도움을 받아 원장님은 환자의 상태를 현지직원에게 영어로 설명하고 현지직원은 다시 베트남어로 통역을 해주는 식으로 진료를 진행해야했기 때문에 진료시간은 4~5로 길어질 수밖에 없었다.

이곳사람들의 눈 건강은 생각했던것보다 너무 좋지않았다.

나이든 사람들의 대부분은 백내장이 많이 진행되었음에도 형편이 여의치않아 수술시기가 많이 늦춰진 사람들도 있었고, 시력이 나쁜데도 제눈에 맞는 안경하나 제대로 갖지 못한 사람..

태어날 때부터 시력이 발달하지 못한사람.. 심지어 태어날 때부터 안구가 생성되지 못한사람...

진료를 하는 내내 나는 정말 풍족한 환경에서 살아 왔구나.. 하는 생각이 절로 들었다.

이곳사람들은 이러한 부족한 환경에서도 밝고, 작은것에 감사해 했다.

본인의 시력에 꼭 맞지 않는 안경을 씌워주어도 잘 보인다며 환한 미소를 지었고, 우리가 더이상 해줄것이 없어 불편할때 사용하라고 인공눈물약만을 손에 쥐어주어도 고맙다는 인사를 아끼지 않았다.

진료를 계속 보면서 원장님과 나는 다음번에는 꼭 수술기구와 장비를 갖추고 다시와서 많은 사람들에게 더 밝은세상을 선물하기로 약속했다.

진료를 받으려는 사람들의 행렬은 계속 되었고, 다음날 있을 집짓기행사를 포기하고 진료를 하루 연장하기로했다.

밤이되어 하늘을 바라보니 호치민의 밤하늘은 생각보다 별이 없었다.

아마도 수많은 오토바이의 매연과 오염으로 많은 별들이 빛을 잃었고, 이곳 사람들의 눈에도 빛을 잃어가는게 아닐까..

가슴이 아팠다..

이틀동안의 의료봉사활동을 하면서 계속 생각했던것은 정말 나는 행복한 환경에서 살고있구나.. 하는 생각 이었다. 그리고 이들에게서 배운 한가지는 작은것에도 감사할 줄 아는 마음과 힘든 상황속에서도 긍정적일 수 있는 마음이다.

고등학교를 다닐때부터 봉사활동클럽을 통해 봉사활동을 시작했다. 평소에도 보육원이나 양로원에서 사람들을 돕는 일을 하고싶었었는데, 핑계일 수 있겠지만.. 봉사활동이라는게 생각하는것 만큼 쉽지않았다.

인터넷 사이트를 통해 봉사활동을 알아보았을땐 봉사활동 점수를 받기위해 이미신청이 끝나 참여할 수 없었고, 그것이 아니면 음악이나 미술과 같은 특별한 재능이 있어야 봉사활동에 참여할 수 있었다.

그런데 나의 직업이 이렇게 좋은 직업일 줄이야.. 간호사일을 하면서 이곳저곳 봉사활동을 할 수있는 기회가 많아졌다.. 넘 뿌듯하고 자랑스러운 일인것같다. 이번에도 이렇게 기회를 만들어준 우리병원에 감사한다..

다음에도 꼭 기회가 있었으면 좋겠다.

임혜정

GS Eye Center - English and Mandarin versions

Dear friends,

After all these months of hard work, the English and Mandarin versions for GS Eye Center homepage are finally ready.  Please feel free to check out the information on http://www.gseyecenter.com/ and we look forward to receiving your feedback.

Sincerely,
GS Eye Center

Contribution back to the society

Nowadays we always ask what the society could do for them but have we stopped for a moment and thought about what we have done for this society? Of course giving and taking is an etiquette most people know but have we thought about giving more and taking less? Our ecosystem is a cycle that would be adequate for humans, plants, animals and the earth to sustain for a long, long time if we give as much as we take from the ecosystem. It is easily said than done but sometimes a little might mean nothing to us, yet meant a lot to others. We are now living on a land that our ancestors worked hard to provide and we also must not forget about them and their hardship. So what should we do to contribute back especially when everyone is busy earning money to sustain their own lifestyle?  Actually I think the best way is through volunteering as firstly, we learn not to think that every action we do will mean we will get something back, secondly, we actually learn to give completely and thirdly, we understand that if we manage our time efficiently, we could still spare time for others who need our aid.

Our clinic provides voluntary services like free eye check-up for the elderly in the elderly homes or local community centers and going to Vietnam to provide free cataract surgeries & eye check-up for the people living in the rural area every year.  This month we went to Yangjae Senior Welfare Center to provide free eye examination for the elderly living around the area.  The queue started way before we reached there and everything started as soon as we set up all the equipment.  At first our optometrist provided regular eye check-up to check their vision and lens condition. Most elderly had some vision problems like not being able to see anything within a feet distance, not wearing glasses even though they couldn’t see well and presbyopia. One of the grannies was very adorable as her left eye condition was better than her right eye and she was trying to use her left eye to read even though we covered her left eye.  I felt sad for some grandpas as they couldn’t even see how many fingers the optometrist had placed in front of them. 

After the regular eye examination, Dr. Kim examined their eye condition for any possible diseases or problems and he advised the patients how to take care of their eyes, especially for those with slight cloudy lens condition by providing eye drops so that the lens condition would not get worse.  For some with healthy lens, eye drops were also provided to make sure that the elderly could maintain their eye condition. For some with serious cataract conditions, Dr. Kim advised them to get an operation to replace the lens as soon as possible so that the condition did not get worse. 

Finally, we managed to see all the patients within 3 mad-hours rush and the center in-charge was really grateful that we made the visit. She told us that most elderly had difficulty going to places and by bringing our equipment to the center, the patients didn’t have to go far for treatment. However it did not apply to certain examinations, as some require the patients to visit the hospital for detailed examination. It is a pity and I hope as the technology advances, more and more equipment will be made smaller and more compact to accommodate the elderly needs.  Well, a little means so much to these elderly and let’s try to make this place a more beautiful place to live in!

Cataract Procedure

Operating on any part of the eyeball requires lots of patient and skillful hands as our eyeball is really small (an average diameter of 24mm) and of course, it is one of the most delicate part of our body.  During LASIK/LASEK surgery, top corneal layer is scraped off, laser is used and then, cornea is covered with contact lenses for recovery, but for cataract surgery, the surgeon needs to create an incision on the cornea, remove the cataract, insert a new lens and then stitch up the incision.

So how does the cataract surgery go? The procedure will vary a little depending on the clinic and the machine used. After the doctor confirmed that your eyes have cataract, appointment for cataract removal will be set up and one eye is usually operated on the first day and the other on the second day. The doctor will also check with you about your medical history to make sure that the drugs you are currently taking will not interfere with the medication prescribed. Normally, you will be asked to stop taking any medication for cardiovascular diseases and eye drops will be prescribed for about 4 days to a week before the surgery. 

On the surgery day, the doctor would exam the infected eye again before the surgery and the consultant will explain the steps of taking the prescribed eye drops after the surgery.  After that, you will be brought into the surgery wearing a gown and cap and the nurse will ask you to sit on a reclining chair. With you comfortably laid down, the nurse will then disinfect your eye area including the forehead, drop some local anesthesia eye drops, cover your head and eye with a sterile covering, use a speculum to hold your eye in place and instruct you not to move your eye too much during operation. When this is done, the surgeon will come in to get ready for the surgery. 

Once the surgeon is ready, the surgeon will create 2 small incisions on your cornea using an operating microscope and inject a gel-like substance, viscoelastic, into your anterior chamber to help stabilize your eye pressure during the surgery. Next, the surgeon will insert forceps through one of the incisions to remove the top thin layer of the cataract and then by using Infiniti Vision system, the surgeon will use the Infiniti handpiece to slowly break up the cloudy lens into smaller pieces (phacofracture) and remove them through suction (less than 5 minutes) including making sure that the cataract on the edge is removed.   

Incisions are made.

Forceps used to remove top layer.

Infinite handpiece used to remove cataract.

New IOL lens inserted. 

After the cataract is removed thoroughly, a high-quality intraocular lens is inserted into your eye to replace the original lens and incision is sutured.  The type of lens inserted will depend on your eye’s needs. At present you could have lens that is for both cataract and presbyopia inserted. A protective shield will then be placed on your eye and you would be taken to the recovery area to rest for about 30 minutes.  Before you leave, the surgeon will check on your eye again and another appointment will be made for you to return for check-up on the next day. It is a painless surgery and the recovery period will take about a week with you being able to return to work on the next day.  


Just out of curiosity, I checked on a few videos on traditional cataract procedure and you could watch them on the following sites:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X_Q3lrw5JA (watch from the middle of film - couching procedure)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeBbKS0GoQs (watch from the middle of film)

Nutrition & Cataracts

When I was young, I didn’t worry much about health care as both my parents were pretty tough and healthy except for occasional coughing and cold, my siblings and I hardly visited the doctor.  Now after 30 years later, my parents are getting older and they both need reading glasses, especially for my dad, who started to wear glasses while driving as he couldn’t stay within the lines and it is dangerous driving at night if eyesight is not well. Usually presbyopia develops gradually after the age of 40 and then, cataracts will develop depending on the health of our eyes due to the decrease of our eyes’ refractive power and the flexibility in our eyes.  Slowly when we want to look at closer items, we will find it hard to focus and the items will be blurred.  In order to settle such situation, we will start to use glasses or patients with cataracts will need surgery to remove the cataracts. 

Cataracts are formed due to oxidation of lens proteins and research has suggested that dietary antioxidants may play a big role in prevention. Since taking care of our health is part of our life mission, why not think about eating healthily or taking vitamins regularly to prevent cataract formation? That’s like killing two birds with one stone. I am sure a lot of people know about that but I am also sure that there are also a lot who don’t know the relation between nutrition and cataracts or bother doing that since people are busier now. Usually we realize the existence of certain health problems only when it happens to a family member or friend or even on ourselves. Then we start to think about the prevention that may be too late for some people as the condition could have reached the final stage. Instead of waiting for it to happen, we should also think about the prevention method by doing online research or yearly health check up and not wait for others to feed us with information.      

Healthy Eye

Immature Senile Cataract

Mature Senile Cataract

Hypermature Senile Cataract

Cataract is basically a clouding that develops in the crystalline lens of the eye or in its envelope varying in degree from slight to complete opacity and it will gradually obstruct the light passage. Its category is wide from age-related to systemic conditions like metabolic and nutritional diseases depending on the position of cataract (posterior or anterior). Hydrogen peroxide present in the aqueous can give rise to reactive oxygen species such as superoxides, which can damage our lens components like crystalline proteins, lens fiber membranes and lipids, leading to lens opacities.  Due to this, many observational epidemiologic studies of dietary factors in cataract have focused on the amount of antioxidant nutrients contained in the diet by either examining the intake of specific nutrients or serum concentration of nutrients or biomarkers of fruit and vegetable intake or the development of cataract in relation to specific foods or food groups including cigarette smoking as an establish risk factor since it is an important source of oxidative stress. Evidence has also shown that smoking has a direct deleterious effect on the human lens and it decreases plasma concentration of ascorbate and indirectly aid cataract formation by lowering the plasma concentrations of nutrients that are important to the maintenance of lens transparency.

So what should we eat? Well since everyone has been talking about consuming enough vitamin C to strengthen our immune system, we could now find vitamin C in fruits, vegetables, health drinks and supplements.  It will be good to keep it up as research has shown that higher serum concentrations of vitamin C were associated with a lower prevalence of nuclear cataract in many studies. Vitamin C is well known for its antioxidant properties and it is found in high concentration within the lens, aqueous humor and vitreous humor of humans and lenses with higher vitamin C concentration were protected from oxidative damage.  Even just by consuming orange juice was also shown to increase plasma vitamin C concentration significantly and significant protective association was also found between increasing consumption of fruit juices and incident nuclear cataract. In addition, vitamin C combined with other antioxidants like vitamin E, beta-carotene and zinc, had a protective association with long term (10y) incidence of nuclear cataract which support that diet and supplement intakes of vitamin C and other antioxidants may exert age-related ocular benefits as well as beneficial effects on aging itself.  

Even if you think you are getting enough nutrients from the food you are eating everyday, the amount of daily nutrients might not be enough especially if you are a picky eater or vegetarian.  In that case, it is important to consume supplements like multi-vitamins every 2 days to make sure that your body is getting enough nutrients. There is no need to over-consume supplements if you are eating well unless you are sick or under doctor’s advice as there would be adverse effect to our body. For example, we know that we need to consume vitamin A to maintain good eyes but do you know that, if we over-consume vitamin A, our vision will start to blur?  This actually happened to one of my professor’s mom and our professor was the one who advised us on this.  So if you are not sure about the amount of nutrients your body might need, I recommend going to a dietician to get a body examination and proper advice.  Well, remember it is your body and it will be up to you to make the changes for a healthier body!

LASEK vs LASIK

For people like me who have been wearing glasses or contact lenses for more than 10 years, I am pretty sure we all have experienced dry eyes, headaches, tiredness, red or teary eyes, and others due to long hours of wearing glasses or contact lenses.  Wearing contact lenses for a long time is also not good for the eyes as you would find a lot of protein deposits beneath your eyelids especially for those who are using yearly disposable contact lenses rather than weekly or daily disposable contact lenses and the deposits will irritate the eyes and might cause cloudy lenses, which interfere with our vision in the future.

With all these reasons, I have been thinking about going for the vision correction surgery especially after knowing that my friends and cousins had their eyes corrected recently. At the moment, LASEK and LASIK are the two most common vision correction methods for people who have low to mid myopia and astigmatism and ASA LASEK & Intraocular Lens Insertion are used for people with high myopia and astigmatism.  Usually the consultants and doctors will discuss the suitable method and cost depending on your eye condition and you could make the decision depending on your budget. 

So what are LASEK and LASIK? Basically in LASEK, the surgeon will scrap the top corneal layer and laser is used to correct your vision whereas in LASIK, a thicker corneal flap is created, flipped open and then, laser is used to correct the vision. In traditional LASIK, a metal blade (M-LASIK) is used to create the corneal flap and until recently, laser (i-LASIK) is introduced to create the corneal flap by creating closely-arranged bubbles within the cornea.  Nowadays, M-LASIK is usually cheaper than LASEK and i-LASIK is the most expensive one since laser is used twice during the surgery. People with thin corneas might not be suitable candidates for LASIK as thicker corneal flap is created and too little is remained after creation. There will be a thorough eye examination including pachy test to determine corneal thickness and a topographer to measure surface contour. Using this information, the surgeon will calculate the amount and location to remove corneal tissue during the operation.

Apart from LASEK and LASIK, each clinic labels the method differently depending on the excimer laser machine available in the clinic like Da Vinci, Epi-LASIK, IntraLASIK, CustomVue and MEL-80.  I would recommend reviewing the differences online and have a rough idea before going to the consultation. Not only that, I would also recommend checking the doctor’s qualifications and online reviews as excellent surgical skill is as important as using a high-quality excimer laser machine. 

After deciding on the clinic, you would have to make considerations for the recovery time as it takes about 3 days to recover for LASEK and 4 hours to a day for LASIK.  If you are working and do not have enough vacation, you might want to opt for LASIK as the cornea is healed naturally and it remains in position almost immediately after the surgery. Regarding LASEK, you would expect constant tearing and some pain for up to 3 days as the cornea is still growing to replace the lost tissue. On top of that, you might have difficulty looking at nearer objects for the first month but you would not have problem looking at further objects.

The common complications for both methods include: dry eyes, glare or halos, under or over correction, corneal haze, scarring and increased sensitivity. These could be temporary or permanent depending on individuals. If you are unhappy with the outcome, you could choose to have a re-correction unless your cornea is too thin and it should be free of charge for the first year.

Ultimately, you should feel safe and comfortable with the clinic and the doctor before making the decision and have suspicions if it is too cheap or expensive as your decision will affect your eyes for the rest of your life.